Continuity
by Peonywinx
Summary: Based on the episode Future Harper. H.J. Darling didn't tell them the whole truth - because the whole truth is too terrible, too sad, too explosive. If she'd said anything, she could have completely changed their continuity. Unfortunately, when Justin, Alex, and Max surmise that something is deadly wrong with the future, they are determined to fix it - no matter the cost.
1. Someone Stole Our Stories

**_A/N: Yes, yes, I know it's been quite a while since the show ended, and even longer since the actual Future Harper episode - but when the muse leads, I follow. So, welcome to this story exploring a possible reason for H.J. Darling to come back from the future, because I felt that episode could have had so much more potential had not the show been focused mainly on comedy. It takes one or two chapters for this story to really get off the ground, because of the grounding in the actual episode that I found necessary to write. So, this chapter is mainly a rehash of what happened in Future Harper, but it'__s just a set-up, promise._  
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**Disclaimer: I do not own** _Wizards of Waverly Place**,**_**and I especially do not own the dialogue lines lifted directly from the show.**

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**Chapter I  
Someone Stole Our Stories**

"Did she steal our stories?"

"Wait." Justin turned the page of _Charmed and Dangerous: The Story of the Lost Wand _and read through it with speed that only an overwhelming desire to learn and years and years of near-constant practice could achieve.

Alex asked again, "Did she steal our stories?"

"Wait." He turned another page; he didn't even have to read the entire page to confirm what they already suspected and he snapped the book shut, shoving it at Alex. "She stole our stories!"

"I knew it!" Alex exclaimed indignantly. "Our stories are making this lady rich." She waved the book for emphasis.

"And famous," Harper added.

"And famous!" Justin shot to his feet. "There's a crazy ten-minute sale, the kids get stuck in a movie, the brother turns invisible, and they pour orange soda into a genie's lamp." It was unnerving how H.J. Darling knew so much about all their adventures that she could write about them with such detail.

"All right, we've got our evidence," said Alex. "Angry mob assemble!"

"I always figured that I'd be the one to make a living writing wizard stories based on our adventures," Justin mused. "Except my main character's name would be Serge, he'd walk around carrying a bejeweled cane and wear an eye patch." He grinned as he imagined it. In his mind's eye he saw his name – Justin V.P. Russo – emblazoned in elegant font across the front cover of a bestselling book.

Alex, however, was less than impressed. "What, no British accent?" she scoffed.

Justin took a second to visualize that. "Why, that's a smashing idea," he said in a very thick British accent. "Thanks, luv."

Harper, sitting next to Alex on the armchair, appeared to be totally enraptured by his accent. "Hot," she sighed appreciatively.

Then Max asked, "Guys, how do you think she knows all this stuff about us?"

It was a valid point, and Justin could have kicked himself for not wondering about that sooner because he was too caught up in his author daydream.

Oh, well. That little lapse in judgment aside, he could still take charge of the situation. "All right, we've got to find her and tell her to stop."

"Oh, I know where she lives!" Harper interjected. "In an abandoned paint-your-dish warehouse in upstate New York."

"Whoa, wait, Harper," Max cut in. "How do you know she lives in an abandoned paint-your-dish warehouse?"

"I had my mom's private investigator track her down."

_Mental note to self, _thought Justin, _never get on Harper's bad side._

While Harper assured Alex that her dad's suspected infidelity was just him sleeping in his car, Justin decided on a course of action. Springing up, he declared, "Quick, to the Inter-Wizard People Porter – or as Dad likes to call it, the IPP."

Some mechanical grinding and whirring – and a lot of IPP-related humor from Max – later, the three Russo siblings sans Harper (who had excused herself on account of having to teach scrapbooking to at-risk youths) found themselves in H.J. Darling's residence.

Justin landed none too gently. "Ow, ow! My ankle!" He experimentally stood up, smiling with relief. "I'm okay." He took a step and immediately a stab of pain shot through his ankle, causing him to stumble. "No, I'm not." His gaze landed on a cane nestled among a bunch of umbrellas. Figuring that H.J. Darling wouldn't mind, he pulled it out and used it to help him to walk.

Max, meanwhile, was holding a plain white plate and looked up, as if suddenly struck by a revelation. "Oh, can we paint a plate while we're here?" He sounded absurdly hopeful.

"Max, I just twisted my ankle." _Have some sympathy!_

"Will you two focus?" Alex said. "We are on a mission to find H.J. Darling."

As if on cue, a red-headed woman wandered into the room, holding a salmon-colored book and speaking to someone they couldn't see. "Okay, Ricky! Good scrapbooking! Nice use of vinegar to make the pages look old. Stay off the streets!" She gazed at the book in her hands and smiled fondly. "Good kid. Oh, I hope he makes it."

Then she glanced up and saw the Russos, and her expression changed to a mixture of shock and horror, her eyes widening as she gasped. "Alex! Max! Justin!" Realizing her mistake almost at once, she amended quickly, "I mean – who are you people?"

Her hasty correction was utterly unsuccessful. She clearly knew exactly who they were.

_Well, that's odd. _Justin frowned.

"No…" Alex eyed the woman up and down. "The question is: who are you? And if the answer is H.J. Darling then my new question is: why are you stealing our stories?"

"Actually," Justin interjected, "the better question would be: _how _is she stealing our stories?"

H.J. Darling chuckled nervously. "That's an excellent new question. Um…look, why don't we sit down…and…and talk about it, okay? Um…uh…uh…I'll make snacks."

"Do you have any sugar cubes drenched in honey?" Max asked.

"Boy salad?" H.J. Darling deduced.

Max looked amazed. "That's what I call it!"

"How do you know that?" Justin demanded. Stealing their stories was one thing – intimate knowledge of Max's abnormal (and unwholesomely sweet) favorite snack was another, much more disturbing thing.

Alex, apparently, had also caught on to the fact that H.J. Darling was far too well-informed than should be normal. "Okay, enough of the snacks," she said. "What are you? A wizard? Or are you just someone who likes to wear aquariums?" This last was said with a pointed glance at the fishbowl H.J. Darling had been using as a hat.

While H.J. Darling was fumbling for a response, Justin noticed that there was a sheet of paper tucked into the typewriter on the table. "You're in the middle of one of your stories right now," he said accusingly, limping over to the typewriter with his borrowed cane to yank the paper out. The corner of the sheet struck him in his left eye as it came free. Max caught the paper as Justin dropped it to exclaim, "My cornea!"

"What is this?" the youngest Russo questioned, reading the page. "Flour, eggs, milk…" He looked up in disbelief. "This is the worst story ever!"

Alex snorted. "Give me that!" She snatched the paper from his hand and turned to face H.J. Darling. "What is going on? Why are you writing about our lives?"

"Um…"

"Alex, hang on." Although Justin's left eye was injured, his right eye was functioning normally and had noticed the writing on the other side of the paper Alex was holding. "There's something written on the other side."

"What?" Alex looked down at the page and turned it over.

"No, don't read that!" H.J. Darling tried to grab the sheet, but Alex sidestepped her and dashed behind the table.

"'Instructions for living in the past'," Alex read. "'One: do not tell anyone who you are. Two: especially not yourself. Three: avoid Alex, Max, and Justin at all costs.'" She glanced up, confused. "What?"

"Alex, let me see that." Justin held his hand out for the page.

Alex made to give her brother the paper, but had to jerk it out of H.J. Darling's sudden desperate swipe for it. "Wh–hey!"

"I am begging you, don't read that!" H.J. Darling pleaded. "Do you want me to get down on my knees? I'll get down on my knees. Look." And she knelt on the ground. "See? I'm on my knees. Just don't read that page, please!"

"Sorry," said Justin, "but we need to find out what's going on." Ignoring H.J. Darling's protests, he took the paper from Alex and scanned through the rest of the page with his good eye. "'Do not go to Waverly Sub Station…do not talk about wizards or magic…do not say anything about the future' – you're from the future?" he accused.

H.J. Darling looked extremely anxious. "Yes," she admitted.

"Wait," said Max, "if you're from the future…how many fingers am I holding up?"

H.J. Darling glanced at his hand. "Two."

Max gasped and backed away. "Oh my gosh, you _are _from the future! Okay, nobody touch anything. If we do we could totally disrupt things for when we return to our own time."

Justin rolled his eye. "We're _in _our own time. She came _back_ from the future."

"Right," Max agreed. After a beat, he said, "I don't get it."

"Okay, who _are_ you?" Alex demanded. "Why did you come back from the future? Why are you writing stories about us? And how do you know so much about us in the first place?"

H.J. Darling bit her lip. "I really shouldn't say a lot about the future, because it could change the future."

"See?" Max exclaimed, springing to his feet. When his siblings stared at him incredulously, he backed down sheepishly. "I just wanted to be right about something." They were still looking at him strangely, so he cast about for something to distract them. "Hey, those look like plates Harper would paint."

Justin and Alex turned to look at the row of plates on a countertop. They were all painted the same way, purple with a rainbow…and with Justin's face in the center.

"Huh," Alex commented. "They really do look like something Harper would make."

A sudden suspicion began to form in Justin's mind. "Wait a minute." He flipped the page he was still holding back around to the list of ingredients Max had proclaimed to be 'the worst story ever'. "This is a recipe for Harper's snickerdoodles with Red Hots!"

"So you're not just stealing our stories," Alex accused H.J. Darling. "You're stealing recipes too!"

"No, wait," Justin interjected. He had a look of intense concentration on his face. "Paint-a-plate, scrapbooking, snickerdoodles with Red Hots…that's all stuff Harper does!"

Alex gasped in theatric horror. "So you're stealing Harper's life too!"

"Alex." Justin's voice sounded strangely strangled. "She isn't stealing Harper's life." He stared at H.J. Darling as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "She _is _Harper. Harper from the future."

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_**A/N: Again, I promise this is only a (necessary) set-up for the rest of the story. The original(ish) stuff will come soon, starting with my next update tomorrow.**_

_**Reviews are love!**_


	2. You Don't Want To Know

_**A/N: The only reason I know people are actually reading this story is because I have emails telling me people have favorited or subscribed. Reviews would be nice too, of course - but I'm not doing this for people, am I? I'm posting for myself because I want to share my story. So, thanks to **Phantomxx, vlalita,** and **Queen Queen of Nerdingham** for favoriting/subscribing - and if you feel llike writing a review on this chapter, great! Otherwise, rest assured I'll still post and you may still read on.**  
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**Disclaimer: I still don't own the dialogue from the show, or the characters, or the show itself.**

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**Chapter II  
You Don't Want to Know**

Following Justin's startling deduction, an uneasy quiet settled over H.J. Darling's living room. The author in question, who was sitting silently and worriedly on the couch, had neither denied nor confirmed Justin's suspicion, but it was a technicality at this point, as all three Russos had agreed that she was definitely Harper from the future. Max was amusing himself by looking at all the painted plates, seemingly oblivious to the implications of future Harper's presence, while Justin and Alex were staring at H.J. Darling.

"Are you really Harper from the future?" Alex asked finally.

H.J. Darling exhaled. "Yes," she admitted. "Yes, I'm Harper from the future."

There was the sound of a plate breaking, and everyone turned to see Max standing sheepishly over the broken remains of one of the Justin plates. "That broke on its own."

His siblings groaned. "Max," Justin moaned.

"It's okay, Max," said H.J. Darling. "I have plenty of those."

Max grinned. "Thanks, Harper. You know, I've always liked you."

Justin rolled his eyes – then grimaced in pain as his injured left eye throbbed. "Ow!" He quickly squeezed it shut again.

"Hey, what's wrong with your eye, weirdo?" Max asked.

"I scratched my cornea when I yanked the paper out of the typewriter. I have to keep it closed."

Alex snorted. "Well, you look ridiculous."

"Thanks," Justin said sarcastically. "Hang on…" He thought for a while, then drew out his wand. _"Something hit me in the eye, make a patch so I don't die." _He waved his wand, and a black eye patch appeared over his left eye. "That's better," he said, looking pleased with himself.

Alex snorted again. "If you say so…Serge."

"Serge?" Justin caught sight of his reflection in a mirror and stared. "Oh my gosh! I've turned into Serge! How cool is that?"

H.J. Darling didn't seem to think it was very cool at all. She had gone quite pale, and was staring at Justin in horror, as if she expected him to drop dead any second. Max was absolutely thrilled.

"Cool! You can change the color of your face? Wicked!"

"Harper, what's wrong?" Alex asked in concern.

H.J. Darling shivered, then shook her head. "Nothing," she said weakly. "It's just that…with the cane and the eye patch…Justin reminds me of someone from the future."

"You know what I don't get?" Max asked, before Alex could press further, "if you're from the future, why did you come back here to write about us?"

H.J. Darling looked to glad to have something she could explain. "In the future, everybody knows wizards exist, so it's really not that big of a deal. It's much more interesting for people to read about wizards in this time period."

"So how come people know about wizards in the future?" Justin inquired.

"Again, I have to be careful what I say about the future." H.J. Darling was deliberately not looking at Justin. "But…wizards got exposed because someone in this room has a big, big mouth. I'm not gonna name names."

Justin whacked the back of Max's shoulder. "Way to go."

"She said she wasn't naming names!" Max protested. Then he sighed. "But I know it's me."

"Hold on," said Alex. "If you're mortal, how can you travel back in time?"

"I cannot stress enough the danger we're in by even talking about this!" There was a note of dread in H.J. Darling's voice. "But, I will admit that I had help from one of the most powerful wizards of all time."

"Me? Me?" Justin inquired excitedly. "Is it me? Did I win the competition?"

"I have to put my foot down," H.J. Darling said firmly, even as a flash of sorrow passed her eyes. "I've said too much already." She turned to Alex with a warm smile. "But it is so good to see you again, Alex. Look at you – so young!"

"Are you saying I get _old _in the future?" Alex demanded. "This just gets better and better." She looked at H.J. Darling – it was so hard to believe that this was her best friend. "Do you know what I want to know? Did I ever give you permission – to use my stories to become rich and famous?"

Something unreadable crossed the future Harper's expression; Justin noted that and wondered about it. "Well, no," she admitted quietly.

"Then why'd you do it?"

"The secrets you told me were so fascinating."

"They were secrets," Alex said. "Secrets are secrets. That's why they call them secrets, not books."

"I know, I know!" H.J. Darling was looking extremely uncomfortable – and also inexplicably weary – by now. "And I would've got your permission if I could, Alex – but I didn't think I'd be writing about your adventures when I came back from the future."

"So what? _Now _you want my permission to –" Alex broke off abruptly. "Hang on – you said you came back from the future _to _write books about us, because the stories would be more interesting here. What do you mean you didn't know you'd be writing about us when you came here?"

"I…I…" H.J. Darling stammered. "I just…I…"

"What's really going on here?" Justin questioned. "If you didn't come back to write the _Charmed and Dangerous _books, why did you come back? What are you not telling us?"

"I – I – I can't tell you," H.J. Darling cried desperately, looking as though she might burst into tears. "I wish I could, but I can't, and – and…oh, this is such a mess!"

"You're writing books about our lives!" Alex shot at her. "Without my permission! I think we deserve to know why."

"I didn't mean to use it to become rich and famous, I swear," H.J. Darling said entreatingly. "I came back to this time period, and I was just so lonely and sad…and then I remembered all the stories you told me…and then I just started writing."

"Why were you lonely and sad?" Justin demanded. "Harper, _why did you come back_?"

"You don't want to know."

"Harper!" Alex almost screamed in frustration.

"I'm serious!" H.J. Darling exclaimed. "Trust me – you don't want to know. Look, the future…it's not a very nice place, all right?"

"Why not?" Max queried.

H.J. Darling sighed. "I can't tell you."

"It's _our _future!" Justin exclaimed, outraged.

"Exactly!" H.J. Darling shouted. "It's _your _future. And I cannot, under any circumstances, reveal any of it – even though I would love to if it meant we could change the future – but I can't!"

Alex plopped herself down in an armchair. "Well, Harper, I'm not moving until you at least tell me what's so bad about the future."

"She's right," Max piped up unexpectedly. "You can't tell us our future isn't good and then expect us to leave it at that. If I knew my future was bad – and I do – I'd want to know about it, so I can change it."

H.J. Darling exhaled. "You can't change it. That would create a paradox, and it might make things even worse. Although to be honest, I don't know how they could get much worse."

"Harper, what is going on?" Alex asked insistently. She made her way to the future version and sat down next to her on the couch. Her expression softened as she reached for future Harper's hand. "Come on. You can tell me. I'm your best friend. Whatever it is that makes the future bad, we can avoid it."

H.J. Darling's eyes welled with tears, much to Alex's surprise and concern. "Maybe that's true," she conceded. "But maybe it isn't. And I can't risk that. Because something terrible happens sometime in the future – something that changes everything – and if I tell you about it now you'll have to deal with the burden of knowing what's coming."

"Something terrible happens?" Justin was immediately alarmed. "What happens?"

"I can't tell you," H.J. Darling repeated, almost desperately.

"Is it our family?" Justin demanded urgently. "Does something happen to our family? Were we stripped of our powers because Max revealed wizards? Or did he reveal wizards because we were stripped of our powers? Is there a huge argument that splits us apart? Harper, tell me!"

"I can't!" H.J. Darling burst out, crying. "I'm sorry, I can't…I can't risk making things worse…I promised…"

"_Whom _did you promise?"

"You!"

Justin reeled back like he'd been shot. "What?"

"I promised you – future you – that I wouldn't tell you anything."

"But, Harper," said Justin, "it's _me. _If the future really is so terrible, wouldn't I want to know about it so I can save my family?"

"No," she sobbed. "You told me not to go to the past – you didn't want to change anything." She sniffed. "You made me promise I wouldn't try to change the future."

"Why would he…" Justin corrected himself, "Why would _I _tell you not to change the past? If it saves my family…"

H.J. Darling sighed. "Like I said, the future isn't great. You changed, Justin. We all did. We had to – with the war and all…"

"War?" all three Russos echoed in shock. Too late, H.J. Darling gasped and clapped her mouth shut, realizing her mistake.

"What war?" Alex demanded.

But H.J. Darling pressed her hand tighter over her mouth and shook her head forcefully, eyes wide.

"Harper, you've told us this much," Justin said, managing to keep his tumultuous emotions from showing in his voice. "Just tell us about the war. It can't do much damage at this point."

"Mm-mm!" H.J. Darling refused. "Mm-hm! Mm-hmm-hm-mm-hmm –"

"Harper, take your hand off your mouth," Alex instructed.

The author removed her hand. "You're wrong," she told Justin. "The more I tell you, the more dangerous it is – even the littlest bit. I've said way too much already. I absolutely cannot say a single thing more."

"Wait," Max said slowly, looking rather scared, "do we all die? Is that the terrible thing that happens? Our whole family dies?"

Alex and Justin whipped their heads around to gaze at H.J. Darling, silently begging her to tell them this one answer.

"No," H.J. Darling relented. "You don't all die."

"Oh, whew." Max looked relieved. "That's good, then."

Alex and Justin exchanged glances.

H.J. Darling stood up. "I think you guys had better go. I'm happy to see you, but it would not be a good idea for you to stay here any longer. You have to go."

Ignoring their furious protests, she began ushering them out of the door – but before she could, a bright, white-grey swirl materialized in the middle of the living room. As quickly as it had appeared, it vanished, leaving behind a single, solitary wizard who looked a lot like…

"Justin!" H.J. Darling gasped.

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_**A/N: NOW we're getting somewhere! We have officially reached the fork in the road, the point at which this story takes a different turn from the original episode. Stay tuned for tomorrow's chapter! **_


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